Disfigurement from liposuction is a very REAL result, but having scars and misshapen skin isn’t considered a medical risk. Here is some more information from Discovery Health’s website:
Whether reported or not, liposuction problems are real enough — though some, such as wavy or uneven skin after fat removal, are not medically serious.
Considering the risk of dying from plastic surgery (like Kanye West’s mother did), liposuction doesn’t seem worth the risk. When you add the chance of being disfigured, I’m surprised how many people are willing to have the procedure.
The weather has slid into winter this week and I just told Jen that I wasn’t willing to go on our weekly walks until it warms up again. With a foot of snow and temperatures in the teens this week, she didn’t blame me.
Instead of reverting to the trusty treadmill, Jason is hitting the slick sidewalks. Here are his tips for winter running.
This was a tip I got recently from one of my ol’ high-school teachers. I was skeptical, but it works! A sock keeps your hands warmer than the cotton gloves that have fingers, but breathes enough so that your hands don’t get too sweaty.
Personally, this is the time of the year when I LOVE my treadmill. While the weather rages its worst outside, I can enjoy a workout without risk of frostbite. I miss the scenery, though, so I better pull out all of my Starling Fitness Walking DVDs so I can enjoy a little outdoors, even though I’m indoors.
If you are tempted to eat some McDonald’s food, here are a couple of videos that might put you off your Big Mac.
This first video is of Morgan Spurlock, testing what McDonald’s food looks like when you just leave it to rot. ALL food looks disgusting when it is rotting, but if you’re tempted by a Quarter Pounder, this might change your mind.
I wouldn’t put it past Spurlock to have switched out those fries to make us believe that they lasted that long without decay. Other people have tried this experiment as well and have gotten VERY different results.
Still gross, though. McDonald’s food isn’t any worse than other food. The fact that they are a little slower to grow mold and decay actually points to a cleanlier cooking environment and lack of moisture in the food.
However, if you’re tempted to eat a Big Mac when it isn’t part of your program, watching these videos might give you the strength to abstain.
I can’t express how much this album means to me. This song, You Can Always Be Number One, sounds like an ABBA rip off. Sometimes I find myself singing it to myself, especially when I’m not doing well in some sport I’m trying. You can hear the song here:
The lyrics to the chorus are SO good:
You can always be number one.
You can always be a winner.
Even if you’ve played the game for years
And you play like a beginner.
You can always be number one.
Let Goofy show you how.
Don’t hide your face when you miss a point.
Get up and take a bow.
The whole idea of the song is that trying to play a sport and failing is WAY better than never trying. Because of this song, I have always been willing to try things. Even when I’m falling down, over and over, I remember Goofy and this song and keep trying.
This song was the theme song for Sport Goofy, here are the closing credits that include that song.
Sport Goofy was a series of cartoons that Disney did. Goofy would try a sport, have clumsy problems, but still try. Here is a good example in which Goofy buys a home gym.
Goofy just keeps on trying, no matter what happens. Thanks, Disney, for keeping me willing to try anything no matter how clumsy I am. Trying and failing is ALWAYS better than never trying at all.
Not since Raymond Raving Rabbids have my arms hurts so much. Last weekend while we were out shopping, Mike and I bought a little gift for ourselves, Toy Story Mania! for the Wii.
I wouldn’t classify it as an exergame, but it’s so addictively fun that Mike and I played well past the point of pain. I wanted to play more, but my arms couldn’t take anymore pointing, shooting, twirling or shaking. Here’s a video showing some highlights from the game.
This commercial is a little misleading because it shows the entire family of four playing with 3D glasses on, but the game only comes with two sets of glasses. Maybe if you buy the game twice, the whole family can play. Or, you can just swipe the glasses from your Monsters Vs. Aliens 3D DVD. They’ll work just fine.
More importantly, Mike and I haven’t been able to find the 3D games yet. Honestly, the user interface leaves a little to be desired, but the game is so addictive that we muscled past the difficulty of learning how to navigate the menus.
I was hoping it was as fun as riding the Toy Story Midway Mania ride at Disney’s California Adventure. If you’ve never been on that ride, then here is a walkthrough the Disney World version to introduce you to it. This video is LONG because it shows the walk through the line (past Mr. Potato Head) and the entire ride. Fast forward to 5:50 to see the game part of the video.
The video game is actually BETTER than the ride at Disneyland because you can have as many tries as you need to get it right. Each game has a series of goals that you should achieve (i.e. breaking several submarine plates or hitting the golden plate on the airplane), so working on those goals together with your partner is fun. You also have individual scores, so you can beat your friend as well as work with them to achieve your goals.
The closest to exergaming that Toy Story Mania came to was the game with Hamm (the pig) where you are supposed to stand up and do what he does. Unfortunately, he’s a pig and it was VERY difficult to realize what he was doing. They should have used Jesse, Buzz or Woody for that game so we could visualize what they wanted. Let’s be honest. When a pig does jumping jacks, it does NOT look like jumping jacks.
Mike and I have LOVED this game and we’re eagerly awaiting the day that they come out with a Buzz Lightyear game.
After nearly four years, it has finally been proven in a medical study that the Zig Zag diet is effective. They took 16 people and had them eat 25% of daily caloric needs on the every other day and whatever food they wanted to eat on the other days.
Here is a link to the abstract from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Dietary adherence remained high throughout the controlled food intake phase (days adherent: 86%) and the self-selected food intake phase (days adherent: 89%). The rate of weight loss remained constant during controlled food intake (0.67 ± 0.1 kg/wk) and self-selected food intake phases (0.68 ± 0.1 kg/wk). Body weight decreased (P < 0.001) by 5.6 ± 1.0 kg (5.8 ± 1.1%) after 8 wk of diet. Percentage body fat decreased (P < 0.01) from 45 ± 2% to 42 ± 2%. Total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triacylglycerol concentrations decreased (P < 0.01) by 21 ± 4%, 25 ± 10%, and 32 ± 6%, respectively, after 8 wk of ADF, whereas HDL cholesterol remained unchanged. Systolic blood pressure decreased (P < 0.05) from 124 ± 5 to 116 ± 3 mm Hg.
All of the results are in metric, so here are the facts:
People were able to stick to the diet 86% of the time on the calorie restricted days and 89% of the time on unrestricted days. This is REALLY important because a diet that is hard to stay on isn’t worth it.
They lost weight EVERY week at a rate of 1.5 pounds a week.
After eight weeks, they lost a total of 12.3 pounds and their percentage of body fat went from 45% to 42%.
After eight weeks, their cholesterol levels decreased by 21 points.
After eight weeks, their systolic blood pressure decreased from 124 to 116.
When I followed the Zig Zag Diet, it wasn’t as restrictive and I lost weight, but I did heavy exercise for an hour on the non-restrictive days. This plan severely limits the calories on the fasting day, but doesn’t put limits on the other days, so it sounds like it would be a plan I could follow. I’m glad to know that there is some medical proof that Zig Zagging works.
Every year at Academy Park Elementary, we had an event called Field Day. For weeks before, we would practice activities like running fast, pull ups, chin ups, sit ups and a bunch of other ups. Unfortunately, Utah schools are so jam packed with kids that I would only get one turn for each activity every fifteen minutes, so an hour long physical education stint was about ten minutes of exercise and fifty minutes of waiting in line.
Field Day was a culmination of all that “training” and I dreaded it. I remember practicing my sit ups because I was the weakest in that area. I remember running against my friend, Sceverenia, but she always beat me. I had no one to tell me how to get faster or stronger. Field Day was about humiliation, not accomplishment.
When I saw these photos in the Library of Congress’ Flickr feed, the words, Field Day, brought back all those memories.
The waiting in line, the uniform nature of it all. We didn’t have matching outfits or multi-school competitions, but these photos from over fifty years before I was born brought all those memories to mind.
I have no idea what physical education is like in today’s grade schools. What it SHOULD be like is measuring each child and giving awards to children who improve their speed or strength. If little Laura only did ten sit ups last time and she is now able to do twenty, she should get an award. Not the biggest award, mind you, but something.
In REAL life with grownups and business suits, how many sit ups I can do in one minute is NEVER an issue. Whether I continue working to improve myself IS. Why don’t we judge children the way we judge adults, especially since it’s more lenient? Field Day should have been a chance for me to better myself, not a yearly exercise in humiliation.
That’s why I love to walk on errands because I get exercise AND I accomplish something. Now, I just need to add chopping wood, righting snow sleighs and outrunning government spies in black sedans to my itinerary and I’ll be as buff as Rocky.
The next time you’re considering eating something that you shouldn’t, take a look at this quick video from National Geographic.
After a mere thirty three seconds, you’ll be ready to abstain from any food that might tempt you. Just imagine eating those huge cockroaches on a stick, still walking around, and you’re good for at least ten minutes.
Buy Walking Videos
Back in 2005, I stumbled upon a method of eating that really helped me lose weight. It was called the Zig Zag Diet.
